Deadly Fruit
by Dumpling Soup
Summary: To Alice, Ace's touch was like a sweet taste, an addictive drug - a deadly fruit. Ace-x-Alice one shot.


It was a dead set winter Alice had stumbled into when she burst open the doors of the clock tower. Her reddened face flushed a redder red as the stinging snow pelted her fair skin. She stepped back, shielding her face with her arm.

The obnoxious laughter she knew all too well came form behind her. "Alice." His voice shot through her like a bullet to paper. His footsteps as he descended down the stairs, rang throughout the bleak brick-walled room. "Isn't it about time you shut that door so it doesn't get even colder inside?"

"Ace," she muttered under her breath. The foreigner tucked her head behind her lifted elbow. "Leave me alone."

"Can't do that." He was right behind her now. His bear hands gripped her arms, pinning them to her side, and, like rope tied all around her, she was trapped.

"Go away, Ace," her shaking voice let out. "I've had enough of your games and, quite personally, you too I've had enough of."

The knight blinked in surprise, the girl's comment cracking a smile to his darkened face. "Now, Alice," he laughed, "that's not nice." He placed his lips on her neck. Every breath and movement sent shivers up and down her spine. "Isn't being nice your forte?"

"No!" She screamed, the man released her. His eyes narrowed down at her, his fingers curling down to his palms. Without a word, the knight turned around and proceeded up the stairs. Each lonely footstep hammered down at her heart, each deeper than the other, each hurt more with every swing.

"Either way," he said before his figure went out of sight in the winding staircase, "we're both stuck here until the weather calms down. Run upstairs and Julius will protect you, since you seem to like him so much, but then again—" he turned his head away, "—you seem to like that."

Alice flung her head toward him, anger and tears in her eyes. "I hate you!"

He only curled his lips to her.

.

**"As you should."**

.

Why did his words hurt her so much? Why did she care for that man more than she should even though every sensible thing in her told her not to go around him? Why was he someone she couldn't leave alone? He was a lost child (not like she was any better to begin with) and she was the women who followed blindly behind, ignoring any warnings she heard or saw. A blind bat without wings. Defenseless as a puppy.

Julius' smile greeted the foreigner as she walked into the room. The purple-haired man sat, reclined in his chair, one eye closed, the other quickly falling. He only lifted his head and opened his eyes, a smile stretching across his face, too tired to be angry at the girl. It was fine as long as she was safe. "Hello, Alice."

She rubbed her arm. "Did... did Ace come—"

"Come back?" he interrupted, with a yawn. "Yes, he did. And so did you. It's cold and storming outside, so take a nice, hot bath and go to sleep. We have an event to go to tomorrow."

"An event?"

A pair of large arms wrapped around Alice's neck and a chin rested on her head. "Her Majesty is having a tea part for this event since it's going to be spring tomorrow."

"Spring?" Alice looked up to Ace who smiled pleasantly down at her. "But it's dead winter out there."

"Not tomorrow, it won't be. it's not, right, Julius?"

The man, however, was fast asleep. Alice hit the knight and shushed him before he could wake the mortician up with his excessively loud mouth she knew _very_well. She grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into her room as quietly as she could. Much to her surprise, however, he followed her without so much as an utter of a complaint. Alice closed the door, sliding down it with a long sigh of relief.

"Listen," she said. She leaned her head back against the door and closed her eyes. "I'm going to take a bath and then you should go find a couch or something to sleep on tonight since the storm's so bad. Just... do whatever it is that you usually do."

"Alice." The foreigner lifted her eyes open as if from a dead sleep, heavy and lagging. Ace stood in front of her. His hand held a stand of her hair pressed between his fingers and lips, while his deep crimson eyes locked into hers that took her into a void of the darkest red she had ever seen. "Don't you know what happens when you invite a man into your room?" He pressed his lips against her ears. "Or in your case, I should say forcefully 'invite' a man in."

She spoke soft words while she adverted her eyes away from the man's glare. "You're simply stupid if you think that I invited you in; I just didn't want you to wake up Julius with your loud mouth."

The smile vanished from the man's face. "Even I'm not that insensitive, Alice." His words stung the girl's heart with their emotionless demeanor. "I know full well what Julius does. I wouldn't go so far as to wake him when he's finally fallen asleep. Unlike you, Alice, I'm not that selfish."

The word tore through her like a cannonball. Her eyebrows twitched and her eyes glazed over. She lowered her head before the tears fell and whispered, "How could I be selfish?"

"Don't you know?" Alice laughed triumphantly as he wrung his fingers through the girl's hair. He closed in on her and sunk his fangs deep into her skin. His fingers curled around her face as his lips tasted her neck. Every moan that escaped her mouth made him chuckle in enjoyment at his power over her. "You do things like this, Alice. You shouldn't go around showing all the men here how weak and vulnerable you are. It's cruel to us to lead us on like that, you know?"

"I'm not—"

"Not intending to but doing is the same thing." He pushed himself off of the girl and stood up. Perhaps this was the first time that Alice had really seen the extreme height difference between the two. "But, I'll make you an offer Alice." His smile offered no reassurance to the girl.

.

**"If you promise to show that face to only me, I'll let you go."**

.

"Only... to you?"

Ace placed both of his hands on the door by the foreigner's head. He tapped his forehead against her's. "Become only mine, Alice; only mine and no one else's in this tainted world."

"And if I don't want to?" She searched for an exit with her eyes, but the only exit she found was risky move, knowing the knight like she did. "If I say no, what will you do?"

He smile at her. "'No' is not an option."

Alice took one large breath and, with wavering uncertainty, ducked under the man's arm and danced around him as quickly as possible. "There's always an option until you've chosen the one you want, Ace. Remember that!"

The knight turned around with an amused and highly distorted grin on his face. "Yes. You will do perfectly." His laugh sent shutters down Alice's spin. As soon as he stopped laughing, he plunged forward and took the girl by the arm, wrapping his enlarged fingers around her delicate wrist, he pulled her into his chest. Ace's lips found their way to the foreigner's where he pushed them down on plum and ripe skin.

"Ace!" Alice screamed, trying her best to push herself away from the man. "Stop this right now!"

"Alice." He placed his hand on her check and swung his needle fingers down to her chin. "You'll wake up Julius like that." Again he kissed her. She tasted like a sweet and forbidden fruit, a drug that was too easily addictive. "Become mine, Alice."

"Stop it," she whined. The tear gathered at her eyes. A cruel game by an even crueler person was nothing less than cruel itself. "Please stop it, Ace."

"Then become mine and I'll let you go. I'm only interested in a dog on a leash."

Not being able to take his dagger words anymore, Alice fell to the ground, her tears a waterfall. "Fine!" she cried. "All right already. I'll do what you want."

Ace bent down. He placed his hand on Alice's and leaned in, kissing her check. "Good night, my sweet Alice."

- The End -


End file.
